Here’s the thing, yes, LTO is a burger bar, but the owners have gone to great lengths to make it not just any burger bar. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means local art on the walls, 20 plus local and regional craft beers on tap and burgers that are not just creative, but are pretty much one of a kind.

A few clues: ground duck with bacon-date jam, slaw made of kohlrabi instead of the standard cabbage, a local grass-fed beef option and more than just a few token vegetarian and vegan offerings.

“I don’t want to be predictable,” says Chad Gangwer, co-owner of both Southern Culture Kitchen and Bar and LTO, who helped develop the concept. “I don’t want to just open up another burger bar in Greenville.”

LTO, which is restaurant speak for “lettuce, tomato and onion,” will open at 11:30 a.m., Aug. 8 in the former Dive ‘N’ Boar space at 2541 N. Pleasantburg Dr.

The idea developed out of Gangwer’s desire to find a fit for a broad swath of the Sans Souci, Cherrydale, Paris Mountain community, from families, to millennials to retirees. The restaurant is an amalgamation of ideas that have been simmering in Gangwer’s head for a long time, as well as pieces of both incarnations of Dive ‘N’ Boar.

To be clear, LTO is not Dive, but it honors what the restaurant did well. You’ll get what Gangwer calls “the fun factor” of the first Dive, and the focus on local sourcing from the second Dive.

“What I wanted to do was combine the goods of both,” Gangwer explains.

The local thread runs from food to artwork. Greenbrier Farms will be providing the restaurant’s grass-fed beef option, local screen printing company, Dapper Ink, is doing T-shirts, and the local graphics company, TPN, has done the large scale artistic renderings inside.

Gangwer has also partnered with around eight local artists to produce a special art collage that features personal interpretations of Monopoly.

Buy Photo

New LTO Burger Bar in Greenville is set to open Aug. 8.(Photo: BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff)

“We’re trying to help the community grow and feed each other,” he explains.

Those familiar with Dive ‘N’ Boar, will find an entirely new restaurant. The space inside is brighter now, with added touches like painted wood panels and new upholstery and lighting. The owners also added booths on the dining side of the restaurant, which adds to the community feel.

The main entrance is also now moved to the dining room side.

As for menu, Gangwer, along with LTO chef and Southern Culture Kitchen alum, Brian Coller, have created something that is at once indulgent but measured, creative but approachable, and familiar yet unexpected. Prices range from $2.50 for a side of house chips to $12 for a blackened mahi burger. And grass-fed beef is $2 more.

Here, you’ll find your massive beef burgers like the Old Skool (root beer caramelized onions, American cheese and a special sauce) and Grateful Garcia (field mushrooms, bacon, whipped blue cheese and steak sauce) and the King of Memphis (peanut butter, bacon and banana jam), but you’ll also find the vegan Single Speed Cyclist (black bean, smoked tempeh and edamame patty with a sundried tomato vinaigrette).

LTO is a burger bar with a worthwhile vegan offering.

“I like a paradox,” Gangwer says. “I like for people to come into this burger bar known for decadent burgers, but at the same time, the hidden secret is that there are a few vegan options.”

You’ll also find an array of “Almost Burgers,” which include vegetarian options and the more interesting ones like the ground duck burger, and a crispy pork belly manifestation, a grilled chicken sandwich with blue cheese kale, and a seared ahi tuna burger with guacamole, sprouts and kohlrabi slaw.

Buy Photo

New LTO Burger Bar in Greenville is set to open Aug. 8.(Photo: BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff)

And since we’ve focused too much on the healthier side, it’s imperative to mention the milkshakes. LTO does them with an equally whimsical style as the burgers, and you think “these guys must be having fun.”

You can get your standards – chocolate, vanilla, seasonal fruit, but you’ll want to get the gargantuan shakes. These are the kind of thing you might have dreamed up at a sleepover when you were 10, the sky’s the limit. A banana pudding one comes topped with a small jar of Southern Culture banana pudding and detailed with Nilla wafers that have been adhered using homemade cream cheese icing. The Mexican chocolate shake is made with house made Mexican chocolate pudding and topped with a Choco Taco. And then there is the shake that is peanut butter ice cream, Twinkies, Bugles, with a Butterfinger crumble and Fruity Pebbles.

“I didn’t want our shakes to look like anyone else’s,” Gangwer says. “So I went and bought every sweet thing you could find in Greenville just to see what we could put together.”

LTO will also be offering boozy shakes, which general manager, Justin Bishop has been developing.

Bishop brings a background in fine dining having spent over four years at American Grocery Restaurant, and he’s excited to bring some fun to LTO’s bar program. In addition to the boozy shakes, Bishop is working on some adult slushies, as well as house made spiked sodas.

The cocktail menu will feature a small but creative and fun selection, and Bishop has also retooled the beer menu to include a 25-tap selection of mostly Greenville and regional craft brews. He also plans to use the Untapped App, which will allow LTO to keep people abreast of the most current beer selections at any time.

“The last thing I want coming out of someone’s mouth with any of my concepts is why would I go there when I can go here, here and here near my house,” Gangwer says. “You can’t get this near your house.

“I think a restaurant should take all your senses – the taste of the food, the atmosphere, the feel, the fabric, everything, it should be fun.”